Aiton not considering Kumuls coaching role

Former NRL and Super League star Paul Aiton has played down an opportunity in the Kumuls post, instead, he wants to focus on his current role with the PNG Hunters.

The Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League recently announced the vacancy in the PNG Kumuls coaching role after the outgoing coach Justin Holbrook handed his resignation.

Aiton said he is not in a position to take up the top job but assured his support to the successful candidate that would be given the task by PNGRFL.

"It would be a privilege for whoever gets it," Aiton said.

"It's a huge coaching role. I'll be behind whoever gets it.

"I'll be in support of them and hopefully they choose a lot of our players."

With Aiton ruling himself out of the Kumuls head coach seat, potential candidates in Adrian Lam and sacked South Sydney Rabbitohs mentor Jason Demetriou are in the box for consideration.

Lam has been forced to step down from the Australian Kangaroos assistant coach role as Holbrook takes on that position.

Meanwhile, the former Penrith Panther is content with his current job and said his focus is to ensure the Hunters earn a finals berth.

Aiton said he is happy with the way the Port Moresby based franchise is progressing in Hostplus Cup.

"I'm really enjoying it. I've learnt a lot but I'm lucky that I have these players," he said.

"They're a good bunch of players, very easy to coach. They work hard every day. There's a lot of outside factors but the players work hard every day.

"That's all I can ask. To be honest, I thought we'd be doing a little bit better. Just from being involved with the Hunters and seeing the calibre of players that we have.

"The boys know how I feel and I think we all feel the same way. Some games we probably should have won that we didn't and some that got away that we lost for ourselves.

"Including those, we might be a little bit higher but I'm just happy and blessed that we're even in this position."

Hunters were given a reality check by Sunshine Falcons on Sunday with massive 8-66 loss in the round 19 clash.

They will be on by this weekend with a reset mindset to get back on track ahead of finals playoffs.